The new 2016 lineup of the MacBook Pro is extremely powerful when it comes to hardware. Things are even rosier when you pick up the 15-inch lineup, as they are packed with discrete AMD Pro graphic chips. But there is one problem: the notebook actually has two GPUs inside. If you are idling, the Intel GPU works its magic, but if you jump into something that’s graphically intensive, the AMD GPU kicks in. Basically, you cannot keep your notebook running at full power at all times – out of the box, at least.

In today’s guide, we will show you how you can disable automatic GPU switching on your MacBook Pro, and keep it for ever switching to the Intel GPU. But let me warn you about one thing right away: this will be pretty taxing on your notebook’s battery. Do not expect your Mac to last as long with automatic GPU switching enabled.

You’ve been warned.

Tutorial

This tutorial is only applicable to the 15-inch model of the MacBook Pro that comes with AMD Pro graphics. If you have the 13-inch model with or without Touch Bar, then this walkthrough is of no use to you.

2. Now launch System Preferences. You can either do so from the menu bar, Launchpad or from the Dock.

3. Once here, click on Energy Saver.

4. At the top you will see an option called ‘Automatic graphics switching.’ Click to disable it.

That’s it, from here on in, your MacBook Pro will use the AMD Pro graphics chip to do every single thing. It will never ever switch back to Intel until or unless you turn the feature back on from Every Saver. But of course, the obvious downside here is poor battery life, which is understandable, given the amount of power required by a discrete GPU to operate. On the flip side though, you are getting every ounce of power that’s packed in that AMD chip, whether you are typing a note, checking out websites in Safari, or casually playing a game of solitaire.

It would have been great if Apple baked in a feature to allow staying on the Intel chip as well. After all, if you are a battery life saving fanatic, it would have come in handy on a lot of occasions.